Venice plans to raise its sinking buildings

Venice is planning to raise its buildings to protect them against rising sea levels, daily Italian newspaper La Stampa has reported.

Local officials and engineers are planning to lift buildings under operation Rialto by up to one metre using piston-supported-poles to be placed at the bottom of each structure.

This will take around a month per building if each structure is raised by eight centimetres a day.

The Mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, said: "We're pursuing this proposal with great interest."

This project is an alternative to a previous one, nicknamed Moses, which began in 2003 and is due to end in 2012.

Moses is expected to cost around 4 billion euros ($US6 billion) under huge plans to build 78 mobile barriers at a stretch of two kilometres by the lagoon's entrance.

Those in favour of Rialto claim the project, with an estimated cost of 2,500 euros ($US3,800) per square metre, will allow Venice, which sank by 23 centimetres in the last century, to regain its original look and to preserve its buildings.

Venice was flooded 50 times between 1993 and 2002.

The worst recorded high waters were in November 1966 when the city was submerged by 1.94 metres of water, as the rest of Italy was also battling heavy floods.